Originally Posted by
757FO
And to those who refer to the traveling public who don't fly often as kettles, come on, if you were so damn important, you would be flying private aviation, not pontificating over how important you are because you fly more often than someone else, and complaining you didn't get a PDB on a flight.
While some people do use the term kettle with disdain or implied negative connotation (from the whole Ma and Pa Kettle), it's really taken on its own meaning of '
inexperienced traveler' (as linked in the official glossary). If you replace kettle with 'inexperienced traveler' in your mind next time you see it, you'll see it's not usually used maliciously.